Enjoy Friendship. Enjoy the Season.

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We are preparing to embark on an Autumn adventure filled with festivities, fellowship, and happy memories.

How it began…
I was incredibly blessed this year to take an extended amount of vacation time from fixed responsibilities and accustomed busyness. You see, I decided to stay in China for one more year to seek direction in my life. This year’s blessing has been two-fold; not only do I have the opportunity to discover my dreams for the future, but I’ve been given the chance to create lasting memories with my sisters before I leave home. I’m determined to take full advantage of this.

So, I created a 20 day challenge for us to complete during the month of November. Everyday there is a different activity which we will complete together, both to enjoy the holiday season, and each other. As we make our way through this Fall bucket list, I will be posting about our adventures. 

But the story doesn’t stop here. The purpose of the Autumn challenge isn’t just for connecting4, it’s for you to enjoy the precious relationships in your life as well. My hope is that you would ask a couple of friends to join you in making the most of this season together. Gather great ideas for fall spirit below and make tons of awesome memories!

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I’m Lovin’… Gold

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My third post from the collection, I’m Lovin’ Colors, is here!  This week I went bold and picked GOLD! The color gold always seems to make me smile and that is exactly why I picked the color.

I don’t know about you guys but I just get excited when I see things that are gold like this dress. I think one reason I adore the color gold is because its so different, it can glitter, sparkle and gleam and never seems to get old to me. Just think about it, what is gold that isn’t amazing? I can’t help but feel somehow exhilarated when I see that perfect Gold dress, necklace, or iPhone case laying in front of me.

What color excites you?

This post is a part of the collection I’m Lovin’… Colors, check out my others I’m Lovin’… Turquoise & I’m Lovin’… Yellow.

Sources: { 1,  2,  3,  4,  5}

Cake Walk by Rachel

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Last Saturday, our school hosted a Fall Festival for all staff (including International and Chinese National staff). Our auditorium was absolutely packed with teachers, bus drivers, janitors, cafeteria workers and their accompanying families.  After a short presentation detailing our school‚s history (for the family members who have never visited our school), a massive scavenger hunt began where teams were rewarded for the diversity of their members.  However, instead of join my family’s team, I decided to spend the afternoon chatting with my good friend, the Elementary secretary, Susan Zhou. We have become really close friends this year since I am no longer busy with school 🙂 She and I are coffee lovers at heart so we spend most of our „hang-out-times‰ in coffee shops. We also share a tutoring job.  We teach a young Chinese girl in 1st grade; Susan tutors half the week and I tutor the other half. In this way, we always have strategies to talk about concerning the progress of Mirranda’s English. 
One of the activities organized for Saturday’s festival was a cake walk. With my recent fascination in baking, I contributed TWO cakes for the game. Can you guess what happened when Susan and I participated? Her number was the very first one to be chosen! But our luck didn’t stop there- the very next winning number chosen was mine! She chose the pumpkin bundt cake that I made (as any good friend would do ;), and I chose a delicious looking apple pie. After the fall festival was over, Susan came over to my house and we snuggled up to watch a movie with pumpkin lattes and our winnings. What a blessing it is to have friends and family to share this festive season with! 
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Baking with Friends

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Today I taught friends how to make pumpkin pie and muffins.  To begin with, one cannot just go down to your local supermarket and buy Libby’s canned pumpkin.  Instead one must make a trip to the vegetable market to buy a whole pumpkin.  In China I use a a different shaped pumpkin which is oblong.  The meat is very sweet and with this shape it is easier to work with.   I cut in pieces, scrape out the seeds then steam, remove peelings and puree.   A pumpkin this large can easily supply over 10 cups of pureed pumpkin.

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I prepared the pureed pumpkin ahead of time, then brought it to my friend’s house for baking.  Today I taught four ladies, each from a different country…China, Japan, Korea and Malaysia.  We made apple pumpkin muffins and a pumpkin pie.   So happy that Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

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Fall Festival at Tianjin International School

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On Saturday our company hosted a fall festival for our Chinese National Staff and their families. It was a great way for us to share the day together. Events for the day included a scavenger hunt, kids games, lunch and a Talent Show. One challenge in the scavenger hunt was to take a group photo with at least 10 nationalities. I thought it would be difficult, but we managed. Here we have friends from Korea, China, Malaysia, South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, Australia, Holland, Finland, and the US! Another challenge was to get at least 20 people on our old school bus for a photo.

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Texas BBQ Coming to Tianjin

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Out with Rachel and a friend last week and came across this building under construction. The red, white and blue with big Texas Star was a familiar site to this Texan. We can’t wait until they open!

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Air Quality Monitoring

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Michael and Rachel:

Maddie and I have been hard at work on our air quality monitor! Our goal is to use an Arduino board and low-cost gas sensors to monitor the quality of our air. We definitely met challenges with the technical part of this project; and lets not even get started on calibrating the sensors! After it all, however, we have made some interesting “discoveries” and our hard work is really seeming to pay off!

Take a look at this magazine of all our research!

Take a Look: Engineering Notebook!

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Michael, Rachel, and Maddie:

A huge part of this semester for me has been this course in Robotics! Among all the construction of our actual robot, we are also expected to keep an engineering notebook. We were taught that every “true” engineer keeps a notebook to protect their ideas. I have really taken advantage of this notebook to express my artistic side.

Hope you like how my notebook is turning out so far!

Climbing Higher

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I’ve decided to bring my baking passion to a new level by starting a small cake business here in 天津. Our kitchen is prepping for a whole new dimension of baking and, honestly, I can’t wait to get started! I’ve been working on a simple brochure (below) advertising various cakes which will be sold. Enjoy! 

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Tumblr Finds #2

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So I was feeling inspired to share a post and thought to myself,  why not just make a 2nd collection of tumblr finds? And guess what I can.

Hey, you can never have too many inspirational photos to look at right? So here you have it tumblr finds #2 enjoy.

P.S. Don’t forget to keep visiting my tumblr blog, Tall Buildings!

This post is a part of a collection called Tumblr Finds, check out my other post here.